In 1958, Charles de Gaulle heaved himself out of retirement to bring France’s fractured politics under control. With it, the French people, who overwhelmingly voted for his constitutional changes, ushered in the markedly presidential Fifth Republic.

It has been decades since France’s 17th-century Palais-Royal has been under such heavy guard. However, in circumstances unique to France’s very particular republic, the royal building has been surrounded by police and armored vehicles — for it hosts France’s Constitutional Council.

Keen to put last year’s electoral disappointment behind him, France’s President Emmanuel Macron chose pension reform as an important policy area where he could have an impact and, importantly, leave a legacy where his three predecessors had failed.

With a cult of personality taking shape, parliament’s back broken and a neutered political opposition, Kais Saied’s Tunisia is a world away from the one that gave birth to the Jasmine Revolution in 2011.